Big Girl Bed

Today was a big day at our house; Clare slept her last night in her crib.  She’s attempted to climb both in and out of her crib a few times, but hasn’t ever gotten past throwing one leg over the side.  I remember when Jeff put her crib together, it was the afternoon of my shower and I was 33 weeks pregnant, it seems like a lifetime ago. Today Jeff changed her crib in to a big girl bed.

First I had to find the directions, which weren’t included in the directions that I so carefully saved in the storage bag secured under her crib.  Thankfully the Internet showed us the three easy steps necessary to change from a crib to a full size bed.

It didn’t seem hard, and didn’t take very long, but there sure were a lot of screws involved.  Clare was an excellent supervisor.  Her supervising skills were really tested when we moved the mattress and box spring up from the guest room, it was her job to make sure the steps were clear, she took her job very seriously and began screaming for ‘everyone to get out of the way because there was a big bed coming!'

Clare is cleaning up the water she spilled on the floor in this picture. 

Of course once the bed was finished she had to try it.  She has no trouble climbing up onto our bed, but this seemed a little more difficult, so we moved her step stool from the bathroom to her bed.  She had lots of fun climbing up and down, jumping on the bed and pretending to go night night. 

I knew she’d like her new bed, I guessed she would like having room for her babies and space to spread out, she was getting pretty cramped in her crib.  I also knew the real test would be naptime; I wasn’t so sure she would actually stay in her bed.   After lunch she announced she was tired and wanted to take a nap, we talked about how she needed to stay in bed and that we’d come get her when nap time was over.  I left her room at 12:34, I think it was 12:36 before I checked on her the first time and saw her curled up with her bunny and her eyes still open.  It wasn’t until a little after 1:00 that she was asleep. 

I decided I’d make the most of naptime and went to the store.   When I got home, three hours later, Clare was running around playing and excited to see me.  I asked Jeff how long she’d be up, hours.  What!?!  Naptime typically lasts 2.5-3 hours at our house, apparently not today.   Thankfully she was in a good mood all evening and crashed at a normal time. 

Apparently one change wasn’t enough for today, I had the brilliant idea that tonight would also be the night that we would give Clare the choice of a diaper or underwear for night time, of course she chose underwear.  For the record, she has been potty trained since the second week in July and has only wet her diaper twice in that time.   So after putting on our princess panties, flower pajama bottoms and polka dot pajama top we read a few books and rocked ‘for two minutes’.  She climbed into bed, curled up with her bunny and new Rapunzel doll and said goodnight.  We’d told her that if she needed to go potty then she needed to get up out of bed and go to the bathroom.  Anyone want to guess how long before she got up and went potty?  Let’s just say I hadn’t made it out of the laundry room next door before she was in the bathroom.  It only took one more trip to the bathroom before she was asleep for good in her big girl bed.

So, we officially have no more baby gear in operation, it’s all packed up and ready for the next kid.  It’s a little bitter sweet to close the door on this chapter of her life, but I’m excited for the next.  She’s no longer a little baby, she's a little girl.

Now, the next test will be what time she wakes up in the morning.  I guess we’ll see when she walks in and announces the day; I just hope it’s not too early.